Entries in Mark Block
(3)

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry Wednesday night denied any knowledge of leaked information about sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain, while the accused source of the leak said he ”would never speak ill” of Cain.

“We found out about these allegations at the same time as I suppose everybody else did, read about them online and our campaign had absolutely nothing to do with it,” Perry said in an interview with Erick Erickson of news blog RedState. “You know, I’m disappointed that there’s finger pointing going on. And the sooner we get back to talking about the issues that are important to the people of this country, the better and that’s how do we get Americans working again.”

Mark Block, Cain’s campaign manager, accused Perry of leaking the allegations, which were first reported by Politico, and demanded the Texas governor apologize to Cain and his family.

“Rick Perry and his campaign owe Herman Cain and his family an apology,” Block said. “Quite frankly, this is one of the actions in America that is the reason people don’t get into politics.”

In an interview with Forbes, Cain accused his former staffer, Curt Anderson, who joined the Perry campaign two weeks ago, of being the source of the leak. Anderson worked on Cain’s failed 2004 Senate campaign, and Cain says Anderson was the one person on the campaign in whom he confided about the sexual harassment allegations he faced while heading the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

The Perry campaign denied the accusations Wednesday, and Anderson released a statement of his own saying that he had no knowledge of the incident.

Win McNamee/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- The Cain story just took another bizarre turn.

Herman Cain’s chief of staff, Mark Block, appeared on Fox News Wednesday, demanding that Rick Perry apologize to Herman Cain, to the Cain family “and to America” for leaking the harassment story to Politico.

“Rick Perry and his campaign owe Herman Cain and his family an apology,” Block said. “Quite frankly, this is one of the actions in America that is the reason people don’t get into politics.”

His evidence that Perry was behind the story? Curtis Anderson, who went to work for the Perry campaign two weeks ago, also worked on Cain’s unsuccessful 2004 Senate campaign. Block said that Anderson is the person on that campaign whom he confided in about these accusations from his days at the National Restaurant Association.

Ergo, Block says, it must have been Anderson who leaked the story to Politico, which said it first learned of the accusations about two weeks ago.

Perry communications director Ray Sullivan offered a swift response.

“No one with this campaign was involved with this story. Period,” Sullivan told ABC News, adding, “When people get their backs against the wall, they make some wild accusations.”

Anderson himself also put out a written statement:

“I’ve known Herman Cain for about 7 years. I was one of several consultants on his Senate race in 2004 and was proud to help him. I’d never heard any of these allegations until I read them in Politico, nor does anything I read in the press change my opinion that Herman is an upstanding man and a gentleman. I have great respect for Herman and his character and I would never speak ill of him, on the record or off the record. That’s true today and it’s not going to change.”

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(STOCKBRIDGE, Ga.) -- On the campaign trail, presidential candidate Herman Cain touts his 9-9-9 plan, but his top adviser appears to be subtly suggesting a different slogan: "Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.”

In the ad, Block says, “We need you to get involved, because together we can do this. We can take this country back.” At the end of the spot, Block is shown taking a long drag from a cigarette and blowing smoke into the camera lens as Tea Party singer Krista Branch’s song "I Am America" provides the soundtrack.[See Hermain Cain's campaign ad featuring Mark Block here]

Block is no ordinary campaign chief.

According to a recent Daily Caller profile, Block was “banned from politics in Wisconsin for three years and forced to pay a $15,000 fine after being accused by the Wisconsin State Elections Board of violating election law in 1997 as campaign manager to state Supreme Court Justice.”

The profile, by the Daily Caller’s Alex Pappas, also notes that Block “settled with the Wisconsin State Elections Board without admitting guilt. Broke and unable to work in politics under the settlement, he stocked shelves at Target.”

Block isn’t the only Cain staffer with an interesting backstory. Cain’s vice president of national field and political operations, Jamie Brazil, once worked for Hillary Clinton and he’s even godfather to Mrs. Clinton’s nephew, Simon Rodham.

It’s not just political staffers, but bodyguards too. One of them, Kristian Otto Herzog, has been seen on the trail with the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO. Herzog served as personal bodyguard to Mel Gibson’s ex-wife Oksana Grigorieva, among other celebrities. According to the celebrity gossip website, TMZ, the convicted felon will no longer be on the trail with Cain.

All of this might be highly unusual in a normal presidential campaign, but take it from Block, who says in the video: “We’ve run a campaign like nobody’s ever seen but then, America’s never seen a candidate like Herman Cain.”